Anthony Pearson - Scarborough sailor

An extract from Memorials of Scarborough entitled "Loss of the 'Satisfaction'". Page 91-92. The story was sourced by Val Smith



On the night of Wednesday, the 30th of November, 1803, the "Satisfaction," of this port, Anthony Pearson, master, went on shore on the Leso Island, in the Cattegat. Anthony Pearson and his brother James got into the boat, and before they could get the rest of the ship's company into the boat she was driven away by the tempest. The night was very dark and the frost severe. The two castaway's had only one oar in the boat, so that they made but little progress. During the night Anthony, the master, died. When daylight appeared they were in the middle of the Great Belt, and James Pearson found himself alone on the ocean, with his dead brother beside him, nothing to eat, and only snow to quench his thirst. Truly says the song

"Ye gentlemen of England, who sit at home at ease, How little do you think upon the dangers of the seas."

So Sunday afternoon, the 4th December, he managed to reach Jutland with his boat, and would have perished under the cliff, had not two men passed that way and rendered him assistance; being almost frozen to death, he was conveyed in a wagin, with the body of his dead brother, to a house in the vicinity, where every attention was paid to him, though his sufferings were beyond description. On Christmas Day, his feet were taken off and most of his fingers came off by the first joint. Being a young man of strong constitution, he recovered fast, and as soon as he was able began his journey homeward, arriving at Scarborough in the month of May. James Pearson was subsequently appointed Governor of the Scarborough Spaw, which position he held for thirteen years, and died on the 18th of October, 1822.



OTHER ARTICLES
• Charles Dickens account of Filey and Scarborough graveyards
• The Allen and Truman Scarborough fishing families
• The national RNLI and the Scarborough lifeboat of 1861.
• Captain Cook and his early life in Staithes and Whitby
• Some Scarborough sailing ships - Mercia and A.I.
• A great storm off Filey Bridge and a famous rescue in 1799
• A scarborough man emigrates to Australia
• The Captain and his wife
• A sea shanty about a storm on the Scarborough coast
• A Scarborough Trawler crew cast adrift after a U-Boat attack
• Filey and the gales of 1860,1867,1869 AND 1880
• U-boat U57 - Naval records of movements as she sank 29 trawlers in three days
• The Harwood and Bullamore fishing family history in Scarborough
• The way to build a ship
• Yards and passages in Scarborough
• A huge storm at Scarborough and a shipwreck
• Scarborough trawlers sunk and wrecked in the modern era
• A fisherman's pub in Scarborough
• Log of the German U-Boat which sank eleven Scarborough trawlers in 1916

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